When I first heard that there was going to be a Barbie movie I couldn’t quite believe that there would be enough story or character wise to make a compelling, feature length film. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While full of bright, sparkling fun which will have you roaring with laughter, Barbie is so much more with a beating heart and a message that will have you whooping from your seats. 

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Barbie's (Margot Robbie) perfect life in Barbie Land is thrown into chaos when she starts having intrusive thoughts about death, which start to have a physical impact on her. Desperate to restore order to her life and Barbie Land itself, she embarks on a mission into the real world to connect with the human that plays with her, with Ken, who has an unrequited crush on her, coming along for the ride. 

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Establishing the tale in Barbie Land, we get immersed into the world of Barbie, with all the sugary sweetness of multiple, different versions of Barbie and Ken. There’s some brilliant little details with Barbie stepping out of her high heels and still walking on her tiptoes to her eating and drinking without consuming anything, just like you'd expect a toy doll to be. 
 

The story plays on all of those little details and cheesy eccentricities mainly for laughs, and there are some zinger one-liners that are destined to be emblazoned on movie merch and in your brain for years to come. 
 

But underneath all the pink, glitz, and cheese Barbie has a real heart and a message to match. But Gerwig avoids this message feeling preachy and condescending. It’s life affirming and empowering, and elicited whoops and applause in the audience I was watching it in. Everyone, not just women, really need to see this film. 
 

Barbie wouldn’t nearly be the wonder that it is without its stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Robbie infuses Barbie with a wonderful naivety that is broken when she enters the real world and realises that Barbies haven’t really made the world a better place for women. Gosling’s Ken could’ve just been played for laughs, but underneath it all we find, through Gosling’s performance, Ken’s humanity as well. 
 

While full of bright, sparkling fun which will have you roaring with laughter, Barbie is so much more with a beating heart and a message that will have you whooping from your seats.